City of Farrell Receives Grant to Eliminate Blight, Create Jobs

Posted on Jan 04, 2018

HARRISBURG (January 3, 2018) — Senator Michele Brooks announced that the City of Farrell has been selected to receive $500,000 from the Keystone Communities program to help demolish four blighted properties, build a retail plaza, and attract new businesses and light industrial facilities to newly cleared sites.

“For years, the public and private sectors have worked collaboratively to bring a new downtown to Farrell, and this grant helps advance that goal. One of the best ways to bolster the city’s tax base is to attract commercial development to our downtown regions,” Brooks said. “Farrell is a city on the rebound, and I am happy to see state support for our local efforts.”

One of the buildings to be razed is situated across from the Farrell Municipal Building. It has fallen into disrepair and is slated to be replaced by a retail plaza, with several potential tenants already having expressed an interest.

Another vacant, blighted building would be razed along Martin Luther King Boulevard, a key commercial corridor which has recently benefited from a road construction project that included widening the road, adding a turning lane and improving sidewalks. The cleared site would also be suitable for marketing and development, as part of the state’s “Clean Slate” initiative.

“Farrell is to be applauded for piecing together a group of key initiatives that will help to bring about a new revitalization in the city,” Brooks said.

Farrell was one of 22 projects selected for the grant program from across the state.